Tertiary ICT innovation applauded by Microsoft NZ

University of Auckland awarded Supreme Innovation at the annual Tertiary ICT Conference.

The University of Auckland’s Identity Federation solution – CECIL Connect – was awarded the Supreme Innovation Award at the annual Tertiary ICT Innovation Awards in Auckland last night

Held at the University of Auckland Business School as part of the 28th Tertiary ICT Conference, the Innovation Awards identifies excellence in ICT in the tertiary education sector, either in processes which improve efficiency or effectiveness of services, or new product development which satisfies stakeholder needs. The Innovation Awards were open to any conference delegates involved in the tertiary sector, whether at the individual, team or institution level.

CECIL Connect provides secure federated identity-based access to the University’s services on-premise or in the cloud, within the University or with external parties. This leverages open-source SAML, Microsoft’s Windows Identity Foundation and SharePoint. The judges commented that this leading edge project has broken boundaries in cross-organisation collaboration and lifted the University of Auckland’s ability to create a truly collaborative campus. “It takes the University experience out to the student’s world – for example, enabling students to access University services and eLearning from their Facebook or Windows Live sites – through federated Single Sign On.”


The team received a trophy and $2,500 cash in recognition of their work.

The other awards for the evening were the Infrastructure Award, which was shared by AUT and the University of Auckland, and the Applications Award which went to Universal College (UCol) in Palmerston North for its SharePoint credit assessment management system. Judges scored entries on a number of qualitative criteria, including the alignment to the conference theme of collaboration, impact on the institution and level of innovation.

“We have been extremely pleased with the calibre and high quality of the submissions this year – it is great to see the New Zealand tertiary sector using ICT to explore new learning opportunities and improve productivity,” says Miles Fordyce, ITS Director – Strategy, University of Auckland and Chair of the Tertiary ICT Conference Committee.

“This is an exciting event for Microsoft New Zealand. As a Platinum sponsor of the conference and host of the Innovation Awards, it is great for us to be able to award tertiary institutions for using technology to drive innovation,” says Evan Blackman, Tertiary Sector Manager for Microsoft NZ.

“The tertiary sector is a bastion of intellect and innovation – from its lecturers and students, to its IT Managers and CIOs. We hope these awards will continue to encourage others in the sector to use technology to the best of its ability.”

The Infrastructure Award winners each received $5,000 of Microsoft Consulting Services, while the Application Award winner received $8,000 of travel to the EDUCAUSE Conference in California and Microsoft’s campus in Redmond for an executive briefing.

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